Faculty of Life Sciences & Biotechnology

Dr PRITI SAXENA

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

psaxena@sau.ac.in

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND:

Ph.D. (Chemical Biology) National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi (2008)

M.Sc. (Microbiology) Institute of Microbiology & Biotechnology, Bhopal (2000)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

Scientist Fellow: Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi (2009-2011)

Research Associate: National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi (2008-2009)

Research Assistant: National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi (2000-2003)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Present interest involves, dissecting molecular intricacies mediating host-pathogen interplay in mycobacterial pathogenesis, with a special focus on identifying functional role of cellular lipids and lipid metabolizing enzymes.

AWARDS AND GRANTS:

Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA)

Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India (2009 onwards)

FEW RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

1. Saxena, P., Yadav, G., Mohanty, D. & Gokhale, R.S., (2003) A new family of type III polyketide synthases in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 278(45), 44780-90

2. Sankaranarayanan, R., Saxena, P., Marathe, U.B., Gokhale, R.S., Shanmugam, V.M. & Rukmini, R., (2004) A novel tunnel in mycobacterial type III polyketide synthase reveals the structural basis for generating diverse metabolites, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 11(9), 894-900

3. Rukmini, R., Shanmugam, V.M., Saxena, P., Gokhale, R.S. & Sankaranarayanan, R., (2004) Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic investigations of an unusual type III polyketide synthase PKS18 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Acta Crystallographica D Biological Crystallography, 60(4), 749-51

4. Arora, P., Vats, A., Saxena, P., Mohanty, D. & Gokhale, R.S., (2005) Promiscuous fatty acyl CoA ligases produce acyl-CoA and acyl-SNAC precursors for polyketide biosynthesis, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 127(26), 9388-9

5. Krithika, R., Marathe, U., Saxena, P., Ansari, M.Z., Mohanty, D. & Gokhale, R.S., (2006) A genetic locus required for iron acquisition in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 103(7), 2069-74

6. Gokhale, R.S., Saxena, P., Chopra, T. & Mohanty, D., (2007) Versatile polyketide enzymatic machinery for biosynthesis of complex mycobacterial lipids, Natural Product Reports, 24(2), 267-77

7. Saxena, P.*, Goyal, A.*, Rahman, A., Singh, P.K., Kasbekar, D.P., Gokhale, R.S. & Sankaranarayanan, R., (2008) Structural insights into biosynthesis of resorcinolic lipids by a type III polyketide synthase in Neurospora crassa, Journal of Structural Biology, 162(3), 411-21 (* equal authorship)